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Dropbox fails to start with "VerificationError: importing pylinux..." . It seems that some recent Python update breaks Dropbox, resulting in the following error:

Starting Dropbox...Traceback (most recent call last):
File "dropbox/client/main.py", line 13, in 
File "autogen_explicit_imports.py", line 13, in 
File "ui/common/selective_sync.py", line 6, in 
File "arch/__init__.py", line 28, in 
File "arch/linux/tracing.py", line 8, in 
File "hard_trace.py", line 6, in 
File "client_api/connection_hub.py", line 21, in 
File "client_api/kv_connection.py", line 23, in 
File "pylinux/__init__.py", line 71, in 
File "cffi/api.py", line 311, in verify
File "dropbox/overrides.py", line 398, in load_library
File "cffi/verifier.py", line 69, in load_library
File "cffi/verifier.py", line 154, in _load_library
File "cffi/vengine_cpy.py", line 124, in load_library
VerificationError: importing '/home/maythux/pylinux/__pycache__/_cffi__xa0c4f46bx1d95b4de.so': No module named _cffi__xa0c4f46bx1d95b4de

Reinstalling Dropbox didn't fix this issue.

Any Idea?!

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  • 1
    Dropbox version? And what is the OS?
    – user25656
    Jan 21, 2014 at 6:46

1 Answer 1

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Open a terminal using Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcuts and run the following commands:

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/dropbox/.dropbox-dist
rm -rf ~/.dropbox-dist
dropbox start -i

This will remove the downloaded Dropbox binaries and re-download them. Once the download is finished, Dropbox should start normally again.

Be careful when dealing with rm -rf.

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  • 2
    Just to be clear: rm -rf means remove all the files and folders **r**ecursively and by **f**orce. Just so you know. You could also choose to rename the files or to place them in the trash. In this case rm -rf is not a problem, but inexperienced should be careful with it.
    – don.joey
    Apr 18, 2014 at 8:15
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    sudo is usually not required since this is your home folder. Avoid the use of sudo where possible. Apr 22, 2014 at 13:46
  • Sigh. Unfortunately, for me, it just sits at "Downloading Dropbox... 100%" forever. Dec 14, 2019 at 19:09

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